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Software Vault: The Gold Collection
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Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO
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P5DOS000.TIP
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1993-06-01
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My latest DOS 5.0 discovery lets you speed up task switching
by telling DOSSHELL to swap tasks to a RAM disk (or your
fastest hard drive). DOSSHELL looks to a variable called
TEMP to see where to put its files, and a simple SET
TEMP=E:\TEMPDIR command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file --
assuming TEMPDIR is a directory of your drive E: RAM disk --
will do the trick.
A few details can help you understand the process. When
DOSSHELL executes a task from the Task Menu, two files are
created. The first is a small batch file that contains the
commands to run the program; it's named XXXXDOSC.BAT, where
XXXX is an arbitrary string of characters. The second file
is written when the task is swapped out. It's called
~DOS100X.TMP, where X is an arbitrary character.
The location of that second file can make a big performance
difference. If an environment variable called TEMP exists,
DOSSHELL uses the drive and directory it indicates.
Otherwise, it looks for an environment variable called TMP
and uses it as the directory. Finally, if neither variable
exists, it uses the DOSSHELL start-up directory--usually
C:\DOS.
Be aware, however, that certain other programs, including
many Microsoft languages, also use the TEMP and TMP
environment variables. You may have to abandon the faster
swapping if you have a conflict.
Malcolm Michael
Castro Valley, California
Editor's Note: Using a RAM disk for DOSSHELL swaps is a good
idea, but beware: Swapped tasks can take up lots of space,
so you'll need a very large RAM disk.
Title: Supervising DOS 5.0 Swaps
Category: DOS
Issue Date: February, 1992
Editor: Brett Glass
Supplementary Files: None
Filename: P5DOS000.TIP